http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11589.shtml
OECD and Israel’s “tourist” colonization of Syria’s Golan
Charlotte Silver, The Electronic Intifada, 25 October 2010
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| Israeli tourists visit an abandoned army post from the 1967 war in the occupied Golan Heights. (Moti Milrod/MaanImages) |
On 20 and 21 October, the 86th session of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) tourism committee was held in Jerusalem. Leading up to the conference, there was conjecture on how the member countries in attendance would handle Israel’s tourism policies regarding the occupied territories: the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights. Read more…
18 September 2010
Your Excellency Angel Gurría
Secretary General of OECD
Cc: OECD Member States
The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), a broad coalition of the largest civil society political parties, mass organizations, networks, and trade unions, strongly condemns the decision by OECD to hold its annual Tourism Committee Conference in October in Jerusalem. The conference comes at a time when Israel is gradually ethnically cleansing the Naqab (Negev) desert, the Jordan Valley, and occupied East Jerusalem, as in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, and continuing its construction of its illegal colonial settlements and wall on occupied Palestinian land. Holding the conference in Jerusalem, in spite of this reality of Israel’s grave violation of international law, will be regarded by an overwhelming majority of Palestinians, and people of conscience around the world as a decisive and far-reaching act of complicity in rewarding and perpetuating Israel’s occupation, colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people. It will further entrench the culture of impunity that has enabled Israel to escalate its commission of war crimes and what is described by some leading international law experts as a prelude to genocide against Palestinians in the illegally besieged and occupied Gaza Strip. The BNC, therefore, calls upon the OECD Tourism Committee to respect international law and relocate the conference out of Israel. Read more…
EU Considering Aid to Israeli Military
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Jun 18, 2010 (IPS) – A leading Israeli supplier of warplanes used to kill and maim civilians in Gaza is in the running for two new scientific research grants from the European Union.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza in late 2008 and 2009 provided its air force with an opportunity to experiment with state-of-the-art pilotless drones such as the Heron. Although human rights groups have calculated that the Heron and other drones killed at least 87 civilians during that three-week war, EU officials have tentatively approved the release of fresh finance to the Heron’s manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). Read more…
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently announced that Jerusalem will be hosting its annual Tourism Committee Conference in October of this year. This will be the first OECD event held in Israel since it was welcomed into the prestigious economic consortium in May. It will also be the first time ever that the Tourism Committee Conference is held outside of Paris. Read more…
